A Brisbane Supreme Court jury found Morant guilty of aiding and counselling his wife Jennifer to kill herself on the Gold Coast in November 2014.

Morant told his wife that the end of the world was imminent, and that her insurance policies, worth $1.4-million would fund a commune that would provide a haven from the biblical rapture, where he would be pastor.

He told police she wanted to die but two witnesses close to her testified she did not want to kill herself and was scared by his pressure on her to do so.

Morant told police in an interview.

I had such a zest and zeal to live. She had such a zest and zeal to die.

Morant told his wife her suicide would not be a sin in God’s eyes because of the financial benefit to their church, her sister, Lynette Anne Lucas, told the jury. He said she would be too weak to survive the rapture, Lucas testified.

Morant was denied bail ahead of his sentencing on 19 October, despite Justice Peter Davis accepting he was a low risk to the public and had never breached his bail conditions.

Davis said:

Consistent with the directions I gave the jury, the jury has concluded but for the counselling Ms Morant would not have ended her life. The offences are serious.

He said a jail sentence was “inevitable” but indicated he might wholly or partially suspend the sentence based on the strength of submissions.

I don’t even know where to start unpacking this mess. Women of the evangelical world, you deserve better. You do. Do not believe that a man is speaking with God’s voice.

Daffodil

What did I just read?!?

barriejohn

The offences are serious.

You don’t say!

Almost a chimp

Hold on a mo’. Whenever the subject of legalising euthanasia crops up, who is always the first to object on the grounds that the ungodly will abuse it to bump off wealthy relatives for the cash?
Hypocrisy and religion; hand-in-hand since time immemorial.

Jim Jones

Religion: almost always the excuse, rarely the reason.

mambocat

He is an evangelical Christian. She was a woman — and therefore expendable.

Glandu

and satan is supposed to be the bad guy?????

StevoR

Don’t believe anyone is – o’course that means not being religious.

Eric Jameson

Ashers win their case – you perverts won’t like that!!!

Occam

So what PSI did she reach before exploding?

Rick Brant

If she had belonged to a Church following the orthodox/catholic tradition – instead of some “Evangelical” sect – she would still be alive today.

She would have known that:

1. “The Rapture” is a modern heresy.

2. Suicide is wrong.

MystiqueLady

What a total dick! This story, once again, proves that I am moral than their god.

MystiqueLady

Unfortunately these women are heavily indoctrinated in their perception of reality, and they pass that onto their children, and when possible, their grandchildren.

Raging Bee

Offhand, I’m guessing this man found a woman who already had low self-esteem, and possibly suicidal thoughts, and latched onto her because she was unwilling or unable to stand up for herself. Then, after the life-insurance situation was in place, he knowingly began to exploit her known self-esteem deficiency to get her to do what he’d known she’d been thinking of before.

I really don’t think anyone would do this deliberately if he didn’t already know there was a chance it would actually work.

Snagglefritz Sagenschnitter

That pair of silly bastards should have read the fine print on the Insurance Policy – no payment for suicide.

Dennis Lurvey

In about 7 states it is LEGAL to let you children die if getting medical help is against your religion. The religious exception to child protection statues. Might as well not have any laws at all. This woman believed she wasn’t really going to DIE DIE, just change locations. The crazy shit some people believe.

Syzygy

So who gets the insurance money?

Syzygy

Some say that. Some say no suicide payments for the 1st 2 years of the policy.
Some probably say other restrictions.

HFR

Well, here I am just a stones throw from the Gold Coast Queensland and have not seen this case mentioned in our 80% Murdoch owned extreme right wing media?
But our extreme right wing Govt is about to introduce “Religious freedom laws”, so bat shit crazy religious extremist like this guy are free to impose their prejudices and bigotry on all and sundry. We just cannot wait until the next election to kick this Govt out and hopefully the Murdoch own propaganda machine.